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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Rice Cooker Mushroom Rice

This has been a cruelly hot summer. Particularly and most especially in the
city. Steaming pavements, blazing sun,
heat-headaches and the sticky lethargy that comes upon you when you feel like
you are trapped in an oven. The slow
roast…that’s what this summer has been. It
is driving people bananas and electricity bills sky-high.

Which is why we have been escaping to the beach every
chance we get. Lovely beaches aplenty are
one of the many perks of living on a tropical archipelago, specifically one near
the equatorial belt. Yes, the heat can
be debilitating, and the monsoons can drive you mad. We don’t have four distinct seasons either, so I
have never experienced a white Christmas, or a golden autumn.

But the beaches...ah, yes. No matter how hot it gets (and believe you
me, it gets scorching, fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk hot), having my toes in the
sand, ice cold beer in my hand, or just floating on my back in the sea, letting
the gentle waves rock me this way and that…this still makes me feel like I am the
luckiest girl ever.

It does not, admittedly, make for the best environment
for cooking. Fortunately, another perk
of living in this particular tropical archipelago, is the presence of a rice
cooker in ever home. Toss everything in,
plug, power on, and scuttle back into a/c.

Rice Cooker Mushroom Rice

Roughly 3 1/2 cups water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon mirin

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

40 grams dried oyster mushrooms

120 grams Chinese sausage (about 3 pieces), sliced on the
diagonal

300 grams brown rice

3 cups liquid (water or the mushroom liquid)

5-6 stalks green onions, sliced (white and light green
parts only)

- Bring the water to a boil.
Place dried mushrooms in a heatproof bowl. When water comes to a boil, pour over the
mushrooms. Set aside.

- Mix soy sauce, oyster sauce, mirin, sugar, and sesame
oil is a small bowl and set aside.

- When the mushrooms have softened and the water has
cooled down a bit (not completely cool but not quite boiling hot anymore),
drain the mushrooms but make sure to save the liquid.

- Measure out into your rice cooker bowl the rice, 3 cups
of the mushroom liquid, the mushrooms, the sausage, and the sauce mixture. Mix well.
Cover the rice cooker and set to cook.

- When the rice is done, sprinkle in the green onions,
fluff the rice, and cover once more on the “keep warm” setting for a further
10-15 minutes.

- Remove the rice from the cooker and serve in bowls.

I remember the first time I read that many consider the
rice cooker a “single use” non-necessity.
Single use?? For Filipinos, that “single
use” is one of the most basic and necessary uses we have in our kitchen. For a culture that cooks a batch of rice almost once a day (sometimes more!) the rice cooker gets more work than many other “multiple
use” appliances. That being said, we
sometimes fail to look beyond this single, yet ever so important, use. You can use the rice cooker for many other
things as well. You can make oatmeal and
quinoa in it. I’ve even cooked pasta in
it. And, like this dish, you can make
many a one-pot meal.

I used the dried oyster mushrooms here from the giveaway
I had a while back. I wanted to feature
a recipe that used them so Sweet Tooth, my lucky winner, could get some
ideas. These dried ones have a stronger and more intense taste than the fresh oyster mushrooms, but do need more liquid, and a longer cooking time, to cook
properly. Soaking them, as I have done
here, and then cooking them with the rice, really plumps them up and infuses
them with all the flavors in the dish.
They would also work very well is stews and braises.

If I am lucky enough to have some Chinese
goose liver sausage on hand I would use that instead of regular Chinese
sausage. I like to serve this with some sliced omelet on the side. You can also toss a nice
handful of frozen peas in before cooking.
C likes to have it generously laced with sriracha, which I also highly
recommend.

We are, once again, off to the beach tomorrow! To escape the city heat but also to make the
most of our last month of summer. We
will be with my mom’s family, a crazy bunch that I love to bits. Little C, who has become quite the island
girl, as is her birthright, has been asking us every morning this week for “beach”
and “sand”. So I bid you good night and a happy weekend, whatever the weather
may be like where you are!

i love it that you are using the rice cooker like it's a slow cooker haha. i love the radiant color of your mushroom rice.have fun in the beach. i still can't get over the fact that i didn't go to any of the beaches while i was there for 6 weeks so im jealous haha.enjoy,malou

So far our summer has been non existent although I'm just hearing on the news that the temperatures are getting higher as of today so we might have good weather at last. Love this dish!! We don't have a rice cooker but I still think I can definitely make this!

Woo…this is so yummy. With similar method, I usually cook pumpkin rice or long bean rice. Mushroom always is one of the main ingredients too. But I like to stir fry all the ingredients for a short while before transfer them to rice cooker. :)

Hi Malou! As if we need more ways to use it (just keeping up with our rice consumption is keeping it busy!)! It is really so versatile :) When were you here?? We have just been going to the ones closeby :)

Hi Anonymous person! Thank you :)

Hi Simone! I wish this summer wasn't so hot! Over here we cook rice everyday so the rice cooker is a big help!

Hi Macky! Hope you like it! Looove mushrooms :)

Hi BettyAnn! It's so hot you can't believe! I love this Asian type blend of flavors as well...I use it in so many things!